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newkiqx · 2 months

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Nearly every single modern computer utilizes cobalt, a mineral whose supply chain is so heavily dominated by slave labor that it's practically impossible to ethically source. Ignoring AI, it is even ethical to do digital art at all? The production of a drawing tablet is not a victimless crime.

I feel you when you want to reduce this to something as simple as a comparison. But bear with me (or alternatively, I put a tl;dr/conclusion at the end).

Much of capitalism is unethical - yes. I agree with this point completely. It's impossible to completely avoid unethical consumption in the world we live in. But it's good to be thoughtful of it and I think businesses and governments responsible for bad practice should be held accountable. Sadly I can't change the world on my own in any meaningful way, but i'll do my part where I can & vote people into power that care about this too.

Taking your comparison for a second, I feel like the art project of that OP was asking a much more direct "I bought cobalt I didn't need and then turned into a children's toy, could this be art?". And my reply was basically yeah sure it could be art, but was it worth it? My point is that I'm not sure on that last part, and leaning towards a 'no'. They specifically sourced it unethically and made that the center piece, which is distinct from the utilitarian nature of consumer electronics we need to get through our lives. Unethical sourcing of art can be a goal or statement (like here cw dead pets) but will then of course still be a part of it. I don't think ethics were considered for the post we're discussing though and it instead only discussed the very unproductive 'is it art' discourse. This, of course, matters about as much as my "dick" being objectively "long" or not.

Maybe getting a little sidetracked, but I also want to mention that cobalt is an extremely useful metal, whereas AI.. well.. i've mentioned the very human cost of mturk and the wholesale theft of the entire internet. There's also:

the power required

the jobs in art it threatens and therefore the skilled labor we stand to lose if we're not careful

the inevitable price hike and betrayal of the public as soon as alternatives are out competed (this will happen)

the risks of biases (racism, ableism, sexism) in an opaque weighted system like AI & the fact we cannot deal with this except for slapping some extra prompts in front

AI poisoning our actual collective knowledge with untrue shit. Recent cases in point being the hilarious fake mouse dick science being published and the ai generated inaccurate servals on google, but there's a lot more going on

the risks of companies and people in power using AI to more efficiently screw everybody over and hide behind 'machine told me so' accountability loopholes

the risks of AI being used in all sorts of malinformed use cases

But what are the gains? What do we stand to win? Call me cynical, but we already had an infinite amount of pictures at our fingertips, as well as all the mediocre writing you could ever want (but actually much better because someone loved writing it). I feel like all these general AI's are good for is filling the pockets of some very rich robber barons and grifters, as well as diluting everything that's beautiful and true in the world.

Quick sidenote - Some specialist AI have genuinely already improved the world, like with medical screenings, but even then it's hard to really call it a win because reverse engineering the reasoning of an AI is so fucking hard. And again, they're a slippery slope with insurance companies wanting a piece of that pie badly, just so they can apply their 'justified' penalties to people not even sick yet.

tl/dr; So in conclusion, no, I don't think your comparison holds up. I agree that it sucks that so much of necessary consumption is unethical in ways we can't easily fix as consumers. But one thing bad does not equate other thing good. If anything, it should inspire you to do better where you can make a difference and hold the ones responsible for the exploitation in this world accountable.

Don't let it eat you up though. I'm not even saying you can't use it for inspiration ever. But any art based on these generated pictures cannot be divorced from the ugly side we'd rather not see: the underpaid army of technically not slaves and the wholesale theft of everything.

also sorry but i couldn't not include this (source: matt bors)

#long post #txt #ask #fuck ai art #ai #ethics #negativity

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shadowonwater · 1 year

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Pokemon Scarlet Playthrough part 14: capturing ancient cursed objects, taking a long time debating team composition, steamrolling the league but taking surprise psychic damage from someone unexpected, and battling an amazing rival [victory road complete]

Playthrough Masterlist

So I ended up deciding to capture the Pokemon from the fairytale Raifort told me about. I already found a lot of the stakes but I didn't want to go wondering aimlessly around so I looked up where to find the stakes for the shrines.

So far I've fought and captured 3 out of the 4 of them. I'm saving the 4th for tomorrow because I should go to bed, it's late. I'm going to keep them in my pc, so no I'm not adding them to me team, unless I change my mind, but I probably won't. If I did though I'd probably replace my Kilowattrel. I've have him long enough though to get attached. (Nevermind all that, I am going to replace him)

First I went after the gate that only had one more stake left to find (the green one). But it was a bitch to find because the website I was just wasn't real clear about it's location, so now I have two guides opened up at the same time incase one is unclear. So basically I thought I was at the point the guide was showing but I wasn't it, was a very similar looking area nearby where I actually was supposed to be.

Next I went to the purple gate, I didn't have as much trouble finding the stakes this time. With both the Vessel and the Tablets I had a pretty easy time catching them, it only took the 2nd try for both of them. So that's how I got a weird mouse and a weird slug.

The blue gate happened after that. Again I had a not too bad time finding the rest of the blue stakes. But I had a lot of difficulty capturing the weird fish, aka, the Beads. It just wouldn't get.in.the.ball. But now I have it. Next and last gate after I get some shut eye.

The last one, the ice ferret was also a bitch to catch. I had a hard still whittling down it's health without getting it to faint and starting over. In the end Rocky Helmet was very useful. If do replace someone on my team I'm either adding this ice ferret or the ice/dragon. But the ice/dragon is further behind on levels. On the other hand ice ferret is 4x weak to fighting.

Raifort story line is now complete, she gave me Nasty Plot, not really all that useful to me but whatever. Maybe I'll do some more Tera raids so I can get more exp candy and stuff.

Man, I don't know. I really do need some more ways to cover fighting a Dragon type. I have no dragon moves, I have no ice moves, and I have two Pokemon who know a single Fairy move but neither of them are fairies. I have two Pokemon on my team that I don't really need, and one of them is a bit of a glass cannon.

I've considered putting Tinkerton back on my team but the other two Pokemon I'm looking at have just really good stats. Like one's a legendary and the other is pseudo legendary. I think I'm going to try to get ice/dragon's level up more then compare stats again. So I'm doing a lot of Tera raids to get candies as well as feathers to boost stats. One thing the ice weasel has going for it is that it's kind of cute looking, and also the attack Ruination is very powerful, it also has a great ability. I'm just really concerned about its typing.

Finally came to a decision, I've moved Watt the Kilowattrel off my team and instead put on Chien-Pao the ice-ferret-sword on my team. While I think that the ice/dragon was better logistically. I just wanted to have the ice ferret more.

So I was doing a bunch of Tera raids, including 4 star raids. Something really annoying that's happened in at least 3 of my 4 star raids is that the Pokemon used confuse ray. It sucks because my Pokemon keep hitting themselves instead of doing moves. And then the opposing Pokemon does the shield thing and I can't Tera yet because I haven't done enough moves. A couple of these raids almost ended in failure because of this sort of thing, but also because in those two my Pokemon fainted and the timer went down a bunch.

During these raids I've also caught a few Pokemon. Like hey, why evolve my Pokemon when I catch the evolution for free? Don't have to go through the trouble of leveling them up.

So talking about these ruinous legends...

The weird snail one had it's start as a writer writing about how terrible their king is. The writer was punished for trying to spread knowledge of the king's dastardliness. The writer's feelings of hatred towards the king seem to have caused the Tablets they wrote to come to life and combine with leaves to become a Pokemon.

My ice ferret doesn't have a given backstory. Somehow a broken sword combined with ice and snow to become a Pokemon. I imagine it also involves hatred or a curse of some sort that made it come to life, it's kind of a mystery.

The weird mouse also has a bit of backstory given. It looks like it was some sort of bowl for a ritual, Raifort says she thought the bowl resembled a Pokemon perhaps a deity, I'm not sure what it resembles though. But people "poured fear" into the bowl. I suppose they were scared of something this ritual was supposed to avoid whatever that something was? It seems that all that negative emotion caused the bowl to come to life as a dark type Pokemon.

I think it's interesting that the fish one is a fire type. I mean it swims through lava instead of water but it's still funny. Makes me think of Sandile because it swims through sand instead of water, too, I know there are some other Pokemon like that. This fire fish is also mysterious, no backstory. According to Raifort those beads are usually used for blessing something not cursing, so how did they come to life as a dark type? Who knows.

After eating dinner I'm heading to the Pokemon league. I'm eating chicken and waffles.

Okay I've beat Greeta but I haven't battled Nemona yet, I'll that after getting my current thoughts out, I guess I'll try to go in order.

So first I went to where the league area was via climbing up the cliff with Kori I then realized that the was a gate I could take there. I completely forgot about the gate but I did notice it when I was first exploring Mesagoza. I then spent a bit of time catching a bunch of Tandommouse because I'm trying to get the single child version of the evo. Looking at thechances right now... I'm probably going to want to catch even more...

Anyway I went into the building and Rika interviewed me. I forgot there was an interview, I was a bit nervous, but I wonder if the game will even let you lose the interview. I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't. Well she asked me about what gym I had the hardest time at and I was like uuuuhhhhhhhhhhhh..... [dial up noises]. But from what I can remember it was the Psychic gym, but what she was asking for was the town, and I'm not great at remembering the town names, but I did remember this one. Then Rika asked me the name of the gym leader [dial up noise intensifies] It was honestly a bit of a guess between two names but I got the right one. Then she asked me the type and I'm like "Why are you grilling me on this?!" I mean it was the Psychic type I knew that but I was getting sick of this line of questioning.

Rika also asked me about why I was there and both "to be a champion" and "for fun" were true to me. She also asked what I was going to do once I got the title and immediately I'm like "fight Nemona". Because hell yeah!

So I passed and I could finally move on. But let me say this, when I walked into that office it sure was a little jarring to see a random office space and not a battlefield and the Rika suddenly looking like a business woman with her classes.

So the battlefield itself is boring it's just a blank blue room pretty much and all the battles happen there. I liked it when the Elite Four all have their own room themed around them and their type, it helped made the whole experience more big and epic. But here they just walk into the room. I guess you could say the lack of theming meant I didn't know what type they used but I don't that'd be a good enough reason for scrubbing the cool rooms. The same could be said about the gym buildings, I wish they weren't so cut-and-paste. I'd be nice if the gym building matched the type theme.

So, as I figured, since Rika was the one to interview me she battled me first. I didn't expect her to be a ground type trainer so that caught me a bit off guard but I did fine. Her Clodsire gave me a bit of trouble. Let me lay it out: She has Clodsire and I used my Cludsire. She Teras, I don't. If I did I would be at a disadvantage as my Clodsire is Tera poison. I tried to use Earthquake first, but she does protect. I try to use surf, her Clodsire has the Water Absorb ability and negates my attack. I use Earthquake again, she protects again. My Clodsire faints because her powered up Earthquakes hurt my poison boy. THen I used my grass cat and knock it out in one hit. It's just I really struggled to actually get a hit in.

Then the baby comes in, the child, the why-aren't-you-in-school-right-now?. Again I don't what her typeing is but I guessed ghost because her pendant kinda looked like the ghost icon. Nope! She uses steel types! I must say, it is funny though seeing thise tiny little child send out big strong guys. Same happened with Sabi, little girl with big strong Pokemon. She gave me some trouble yes, but nothing in particular worth bringing up. It wasn't that bad.

So... I had been wondering who the other elite four member was. I knew three of them so I was kinda expecting Hassel next but he came 4th. But instead I got slapped in the face with surprise. I knew a lot of people were wild about Larry but I didn't know why, sure it was kinda funny to have this businessman as a gym leader but I didn't really get the hype. I accidentally saw in one tag something along the lines of "I can't believe I didn't notice the foreshadowing" or something like that on a Tumblr post of someone posting art of him. I decided to ignore it as best as I could but I'll be honest I didn't expect this!

This is why people are wild about him, I think I get it now. When I first talked about him I thought he was an accountant or something who just did gym battles as a side gig. But no, this guy is fully a Pokemon battler who just happens to look like a depressed accountant. The boss he talked about was Greeta all along! Makes me want to look up what he says in the initial interactions with him.

So when he showed up I assumed he was using normal types again. Nope! It's flying types, but just as I figured, he did have his Staraptor on his team still. I guess something that could be considered forshadowing was the fact that he used his Staraptor as his final Pokemon in the first place. He was the only gym leader who's final Pokemon had a Tera type that matched one of it's already existing types. And I did find that kinda odd. Well all the Elite Four's Tera Pokemon tera types match their typing. So it fits in with that.

So I was caught off guard that he was using flying but only initially. I used my ice-sword-ferret and absolutely swept him. Just one hit KO after another, all from holding never-melt-ice and using ice spinner. The guy was demolished.

Finally we get to Hassel, the first of the Elite Four that I met, and also my art teacher. I assumed correctly that he used Dragon Types. He does come from a dragon tamer family after all, he even had a Gible in class with him. I also absolutely swept him with my ice ferret. Went the same exact way Larry did. Didn't stand a chance. Hassel crying because of being proud of me was cute. It was also cute that Poppy called him grandpa.

So I faced Greeta after that. The fight went mostly ok but I did have tough spots. An example of that being her... samurai bug. I've never seen that Pokemon before so I had no idea what to use angst it. I still don't know what typing it was but I'm guessing steel/dark? or steel/bug? I guess it could also be a fighting type? I really don't know.

Anyway about Greeta herself... or was it Geeta? Oh yeah it was Geeta woops, was saying her name wrong. Anyway I'm pretty meh about her as the champion. There's just nothing about her character that sticks out to me, she's a real nothing burger. Her eyes are pretty though, I like how they match the colors of her hair.

So I passed the test and am ready to face my rival, my true opponent, and the true champion in my heart, Nemona! I wanted to do the battle in her backyard but the game said no. It would have been more sentimental to me to have our final battle in the same place we had our first, but whatever game.

Anyway I've been kinda low-key shipping main character and Nemona. And I'm still doing it. Nemona calling me her treasure really seals the deal there. Well she said that having an equal was her treasure, but that does make me her treasure. And her excitement whenever she saw me was contagious. So yeah, battle time.

Well, one more thing before that, I noticed that the types the Elite Four uses matches up with the titans. Rika uses ground, that matches Great Tusks. Poppy uses steel, that matches Orthworm. Larry uses flying, that matches Bombirdier. Hassel uses dragon, that matches Tatsugiri. And while Geeta has a mixed team, her final Pokemon is a rock type, which matches Klawf. I just think it's neat that they match.

The battle with Nemona was so much fun! It felt a lot more epic then the elite four did. I still didn't have too much trouble my Pokemon are all late 60's early 70s. And I have switch mode on, switch mode really does help things be a breeze.

The music was great, I loved the location and having the big crowd watching along with the elite four, as well as Clavell and Geeta. I loved how Nemona started laughing after she lost and wanted to go for a round two. While my character's face looked overwhelmed, I was totally up for a round two. A very good ending, I loved it.

Afterwards I wake up in my dorm and Arven calls me. I guess I've gotten a real good reputation and Arven used that reputation to get a couple people to join our mission. Honestly, I thought I'd be recruiting my friends, but I guess not. I wonder if Arven knows I'm even friends with them? Well I suppose he should know about Nemona at least, but I don't know about Penny.

So he told me where on the map to go. It took me secound to find the location on the map. But I'll be going there. I'm real excited to finally go inside the crater. I just know there will be cool shit in there! So... I'll see you next time! Hasta la vistar!

#pokemon #pokemon scarlet #pokemon sv #scarlet and violet #first playthrough #playthrough #live posting #pokemon larry #pokemon nemona

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